1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic wrist watch having a sound producing unit and an electrooptic data display unit for displaying data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern electronic wrist watches are provided with a large number of additional functions. Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,836, for example, is an electronic wrist watch with an auto-dialer function, in which a desired phone number, among a large number of phone numbers previously memorized in a memory, is read out and displayed on a display unit by switching operation, and a dial sound corresponding to the read number is produced for an automatic telephone call. Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,045, moreover, is a voice wrist watch which can tell a present time through a synthetic voice by operating a switch.
The wrist watches of these types, however, require an electrooptic data display unit, a large-sized sound producing unit for producing a greatly clearly audible sound, and a large number of input switches for the input of phone numbers or messages. Accordingly, the outer shape of these conventional wrist watches are inevitably large-sized.
In an electronic wrist watch with a calculator disclosed in Published Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Application No. 60-86993, a case is constituted by upper and lower half cases to effect a reduction in external shape, the upper half case being coupled to one end of the lower half case so as to be freely opened/closed. A liquid crystal display section for time display is arranged in the upper surface of upper half case, while a liquid crystal display panel for the calculator is arranged in the lower surface thereof. Further, a keyswitch section is arranged in the upper surface of the lower half case, and a circuit board, a battery, etc. are arranged inside thereof. A bottom opening of the lower half case is closed by means of a back cover.
In the electronic wrist watch constructed in this manner, although the planar shape of the case is relatively small, it has a substantial thickness for the following reasons. Since the keyswitches are arranged in the upper surface of the lower half case, which has an inside space for holding electronic components, the lower half case is constituted by two stacked plates, a lower plate on the wrist side and an upper plate on the switch side. Moreover, the upper and lower plates of the lower half case must be made thick enough to be prevented from being deformed so that the electronic components in the case are deformed or damaged when the keyswitch is strongly depressed. As a result, the lower half case, and hence, the whole watch case, cannot be very thin.
In a wrist watch having a calculator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,340, watch and calculator cases in which an analog display type watch and a calculator are respectively housed are fixed back to back, and a band is inserted in a through hole formed between the cases. The band can be freely reversed in the through hole. The two cases can be reversed on the band as needed so as to selectively set the analog watch or the calculator in the same direction as that of the surface of the band.
In such a watch, the planar shape of the two cases can be reduced in size. The thickness of the outer shape of the whole watch becomes large because the cases, each having therein a housing space for electronic components, are stacked on each other.
In a dual-display wrist watch disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,513, moreover, a watch case is constituted by upper and lower half cases. An analog display portion is arranged in the upper half case, whereas an electrooptic data display unit and switches are arranged in the lower half case. The upper half case is coupled to the lower half case so as to be freely opened/closed. Similarly in this wrist watch, since the upper and lower half cases, each having therein a housing space for electronic components, are stacked on each other, the thickness of the outer shape of the whole watch becomes large.
None of these three disclosed wrist watches are incorporated with a sound producing unit. In the wrist watch with the dialer function or the voice wrist watch, however, a large-sized speaker for a clearly audible sound must be incorporated in its case, so that the case has a larger thickness than that of the above described wrist watches.